Ash Wednesday
The season of Lent is such a gift to all of us humble, human, humus. The imposition of ashes to start Lent reminds us well of the good news that we are not nor do we have to be God; we are created creatures of dust, to which we will return.
But we are, incredibly, such beloved dust, spirit-infused, called to love as we are loved.
Lent steadfastly rolls around each Christian year, always beginning in this lectionary with this reading from Joel, one of the prophets. It may not seem like good news, with its alarming trumpet blasts, trembling, and thick darkness, its army (described for nine more verses, 3-11) spread upon the mountain like blackness, reminiscent of a scene from Lord of the Rings. Only the Lord of this army is none other than the LORD of steadfast love and mercy.
How did it come to this?
Joel’s message uses prophetic tradition, such as “the day of the Lord” (judgement, when consequences come home to roost) as a framework. His message is directed to Judah, likely when it was a part of the Persian Empire, but it’s written to address the ages, now including us.
The text begins with the call for a trumpet blast, an alarm that is not only heard but viscerally felt in the body. STOP it cries. Stop what we are doing—marrying, feeding, playing—all the day-to-day affairs that busily take up our time. Stop and gather everyone together, because this is about the most important thing in Creation: right relationship with God and one another.
Stop, and then TURN, instructs Joel. Re-turn to God, who utters a word of hope even as the army marches nearer: “Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart…” (v.12) I imagine this call from God like a loving parent that calls to a wayward child, about to step off a precipice and harm themselves, perhaps fatally.
Stop, turn, and REND our hearts (v.13). Rending our clothing (virtue signalling) is the easy thing to do, and we humans are often tempted to do what is easy, like water finding the path of least resistance. God, through Joel, is calling us to break open our will—our desires, our inclinations, our choices—and to realign it to God’s will: to God’s desires, God’s inclinations, God’s choices because God loves us and wants us all to flourish.
Lent is our trumpet blast. Lent is the gift of a season that reminds us to stop, to return to God, to rend our wills. Not because this will save us—we know from Jesus’ death and resurrection what it took to save us—but because God’s great and steadfast love seeks flourishing life for all of us and deserves a loving response in kind from us.
May we respond to Your love with our love, returning to You and offering our life that Your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen
Janice Love